Although he’s excited for his team’s future once he graduates in the spring, he and the rest of the senior class are most concerned with the team’s success right now.

He was a bit skeptical at the beginning of the season. And who could blame him? Who could blame any of the seniors for that matter?

With the departures of Brighton wrestling legends such as Luke Ready, Jackson Renicker, Eric Conquest and Grant Morrison, that helped the program reach new heights during their careers, the Bulldogs were left with a handful of seniors and a bunch of inexperienced underclassmen for the 2016-17 campaign.

More than half of Brighton’s lineup this year is comprised of kids that have had, at most, one year of experience at the varsity level. Up to nine underclassmen fill out Brighton’s starting lineup of 14 on a given night, and that group is predominantly freshmen.

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Fortunately for Brighton, what younger guys like freshmen Eddie Homrock, Logan Kehres, Aiden Brown, Dane Donabedian, Harley Berne and Greyson Stevens and sophomores Ben Manly, Colby Ford and Victor Grabowski lack in experience they make up for with a whole lot of talent.

“We have so much more talent than most people think we do,” said Lee Grabowski on Monday ahead of the No. 7-ranked Bulldogs’ team regional showdown with Grand Ledge on Wednesday and, if all goes according to plan, a regional title bout against the winner of Holt and Portage Northern. “I guess I’m really not that surprised, because I’ve been working with them all summer, so I know we have good wrestlers. But, it’s just a lot of people assume we’re too young to be that good, but these guys, they work really hard.”

Brighton head coach Tony Greathouse has raved about the work ethic of the younger guys for much of the season, praising their relentless approach in the room during practices and for desperately wanting to keep the Brighton program amongst the state’s best, despite being in what some have termed a rebuilding year.

Most importantly, that work ethic is what sold their veteran teammates.

“I work a lot with Harley and Dane,” Lee Grabowski said. “I wrestle with them a lot in practice. And then Eddie, I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as Eddie. He really pushes it. They all do. And they’re not less than any of the seniors. They just go for it.

It would have been easy for Grabowski, who is in search of an All-State distinction that eluded him his first three years, or fellow seniors Seth Soto, Jake Soop and Ben Yahr to be selfish, to not buy into a rebuild and shift the focus solely to their own success.

But the crop of underclassmen - how much they wanted it - is what inspired the older guys to believe.

And they are sure happy they did, because this Brighton team is making school history this season.

Yes, it has had its ups and downs, but the Bulldogs are still considered the seventh-best team in Division 1. The Bulldogs just tied the school record by sending 12 individuals through districts and onto regionals — even the state title team in 2015 didn’t do that.

“I’m impressed,” Homrock said. “But I still feel like we can do better.”

Now they are at the same stage the 2016 team was - in regionals with a rematch against Grand Ledge, which upset the Dogs, 34-27, in the semis.

“We’re coming into it this year with a chip on our shoulder,” Grabowski said. “Just pissed about what happened last year. … We were supposed to beat them last year, and we had a really solid team. This year, with all the young kids, we’re going to be able to do it, hopefully.”

“Being that close and not being able to go is really not fun," Homrock said. "But … we feel like we can get back (to states) this year, and everyone’s looking for revenge, really. And having that experience.”

Going forward, the experience of high-pressure matches will be vital for the underclassmen.

But gaining experience isn’t necessarily at the forefront of anyone’s mind Wednesday. The Bulldogs want to gain two more wins and make the quarterfinals. And although many doubted them at the beginning of the year, they have proven they are very capable of doing so.

“The seniors, I think a lot of them viewed this year as their last chance, I think, to really get what they have wanted for themselves in their careers,” Manly said. “So they came in and viewed it as, ‘Why not this year?’ And they have become very good leaders.

“And it’s been really neat to watch lots of our guys, who have risen to the occasion multiple times this year. I’m really excited. We’ve been hearing all year how in a year or two we’re going to be good. But looking at the accomplishments that we’ve had so far this year, it’s nice to see how we’re seeing some of that success now. And there will be more to come in a few years.”

Potential Matchups

Lineups are subject to change as coaches employ the strategy they see fit when it comes to determining the best weight class and best matchups for their wrestlers. The projection is based on the weights and wrestlers both teams have primarily utilized throughout the season.